Gardening with Nature's Crossroads

Picture a blustery winter day in February, the gloomy season. It’s cold and slushy outside with a blanket of gray clouds covering the sky. As you trudge through the ice, suddenly a gleam of purple catches your eye. It’s a crocus, the first bloom of the year!

Planning for those spring flowers starts now, in the fall. October is the ideal time for planting spring-blooming flowers like sunshine daffodils, red emperor tulips, grape hyacinths, purple crocuses, and true blue alliums. What do they have in common? These flowers all grow from bulbs or corms.

What are bulbs?

If you’ve ever cut up an onion, you’ve seen a bulb up close and personal. Bulbs are characterized by having many layers, which is how they store nutrients through the winter. In the center, they also contain tiny flowers and leaves, just like a bud. (Next time you cut an onion open, look closely at the innermost layer.) Bulbs evolved in areas with very cold winters as a strategy for the plant getting a jump start in the spring. Examples include onions, flowering alliums, tulips, lilies, and narcissuses (daffodils).

Crocuses are technically not bulbs; if you cut them open you will notice a distinct lack of layers. They are “corms” meaning solid, enlarged stem bases. However, they are planted in the same way and therefore often get lumped in with the “true” bulbs.

Planting Location

Keep in mind that these spring-blooming plants need to be left undisturbed until the leaves have died back completely in order to ensure that the flowers will bloom again the following year. Crocuses bloom and die back very early in the spring so you can plant them in your lawn if you’re willing to postpone mowing for a few weeks in the early spring. Daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths, and alliums will keeping growing well into June so they should be planted in flower beds where they can remain undisturbed. (Alternately, you can plant them in the lawn or under trees if you are willing to postpone mowing or carefully mow around each flower until the leaves have died and turned brown.) All of these plants prefer full sun although hyacinths will tolerate partial shade.

Best Soil Conditions

Generally, bulbs will thrive in most soil types but it is important that the soil drains well. The Dutch like to say “bulbs don’t like wet feet.” Standing water can rot bulbs. If the soil is very heavy clay, then it will help to mix in compost or peat moss to improve drainage. Avoid planting at the bottom of slopes and hills or other places water can collect.

How to Plant

Plant your bulbs 5” deep if your soil is heavy in clay. For looser soils, you can plant as deep as 8”. Dig a small hole with a trowel or bulb planter, add organic fertilizer, drop in the bulb, and cover it back up. For best results, it is highly recommended that you dust the bottom of the planting hole with a slow release organic fertilizer such as cottonmeal, feathermeal, or a mix of worm compost and bonemeal. These fertilizers will allow the plant to grow vigorously in the spring and produce an exceptional bloom.

Growing Indoors

Most flower bulbs can also be grown indoors. Amaryllis and paperwhites are perhaps the two most common but it’s also possible to force daffodils, grape hyacinths, and others to bloom indoors in pots during the winter months. The trick is convincing the bulbs that they have gone through winter and into spring, which is done by carefully chilling and then warming the bulbs over a several week period. Learn more at The Bulb Project.

Getting Creative
If you’re looking for a fun bulb planting project to do with kids (or for your own amusement), consider one of the following:

• Grow amaryllis or other bulbs indoors and have a race to see whose will bloom first.
• Dig a trench in the shape of your initials and fill it with bulbs to have your very own flower monogram in the spring.
• For the truly ambitious, plant a bulb labyrinth to enjoy a flowery maze in the spring.

Happy bulb planting!

Tags: bulb, bulbs, fall, flower

Farmer Jeff and the crew at LIFE Certified Organic Farm are busy saving seeds from over 100 different varieties to add to our Nature’s Crossroads catalog next year.  I hope to post lots of pictures over the next couple of months but in the interim I wanted to make some suggestions for those of you who are interested in saving seeds yourself.  There are lots of reasons to save seeds – it saves you the expense of buying those seeds next year, it helps you continue growing your favorite varieties/strains, it helps you develop strains that are well-adapted to your garden conditions, and it’s a great feeling to be part of the seed cycle!

Some plants have seeds that are challenging to save, generally because they reproduce through wind-borne pollen which means they are at a high risk for crossing with another variety and giving you something way different from your original plant.  However, there are a few that are easy to save.  We suggest starting with beans, peas, lettuces, tomatoes, and peppers.  You can find some great seed saving guidelines online from the International Seed Saving Institute.  They give very descriptive instructions on how to save seeds and have suggestions for both the easy varieties and the more challenging ones.

We’ve also written up a guide to tomato seed saving on our blog because we especially enjoy saving tomato seeds.  The process can be a bit messy but it’s very straightforward and tomatoes are well known for having a variety of colors, shapes, sizes and flavors so who wouldn’t want to develop their very own strain?

If you’re like me and prefer paper instructions, see if your local library has a copy of Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed, a great book on seed saving.

And of course, if you have some good seeds collected, consider signing up for our Backyard Seed Savers Program to earn a little money and share your variety with gardeners around the Midwest in our 2011 catalog.

Tags: beans, easy, seed saving, seeds, tomatoes

It may still be hot and humid outside but it’s time to get your fall garden going.  That means you get to revisit your spring favorites –peas, brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale), root crops (radishes, beets, carrots, turnips), and a number of leafy greens (spinach, arugula, a few lettuce varieties).  You might even find that they do better in the fall now that the weeds are starting to slow down.  The biggest challenge may be finding an open corner of the garden!

The fall crop planting window is roughly mid-August to mid-September here in southern Indiana (see our planting calendar) which gives the plants enough time to mature before fall frosts arrive.  Here are some general tips along with our top picks for fall followed by planting tips for our top ten fall crops:

1. Prepare your fall garden bed well by removing weeds (and old garden plants) and adding in some fresh compost or other source of nutrients before planting.
2. Pay attention to watering needs – you can’t count on the rain as much during the late summer months so be prepared to water your fall crops.
3. Pay attention to frost forecasts – some crops like kale and broccoli can withstand a bit of frost but others like arugula need to be harvested or they will turn to mush.
4. Be adventurous!  Fall gardening is an easy and fun way to extend your garden’s bounty – if you want to start simple, sow a handful of spinach or kale seeds for some nice late fall greens.

Kale – Kale is very tolerant of cold weather, especially the Red Winter variety (which we believe is even tastier when it is lightly frosted).  If you planted kale early in the spring, the plants may become reinvigorated as the weather cools down and begin producing more leaves.  However, you can also plant a fresh batch in late August and harvest into December.  As the plants begin to grow, harvest the baby leaves and thin the plants to 18” to 24” spacing (they get big and bushy).

Peas – Many people think of peas as a spring crop and forget that they also do quite well in the fall.  Plant them in late August or early September, being sure to provide some sort of trellis for climbing varieties like Sugar Daddy (big sugar snap peas) and Progress Fresh Shelling (peas you remove from the pod).  You could also try Oregon Sugar Pod (stir fry snow peas) which are a bush variety but can still be grown with a trellis to keep them a bit more under control.

Broccoli – If you’ve grown broccoli in the spring, you probably started your seeds indoors to put your plants outside as soon as possible and harvest the broccoli before the hot weather set in.  For a fall crop, you can start seedlings indoors or simply sow seeds directly in the ground in late August.  Some gardeners claim it grows better in the fall, taking advantage of the cool weather and fewer pests.  The plants will grow slower, which has the advantage of creating a larger harvest window (as opposed to in the spring where you have to harvest quickly before they begin to flower).   The downside is that you will probably only get one harvest per crop, instead of the cut-and-come-again harvesting that both the DiCiccio and Calabrese varieties are known for.

Spinach and Arugula – Sow fresh plantings of spinach and arugula in late August.  Believe it or not, at this time most of the warm season weeds like crabgrass, foxtail, and other pesky grasses will stop germinating because they know winter is coming.  Even better, the soil is still too hot for winter annual weeds to germinate so these new crops will not require weeding.  However, they might need a little extra watering.  Arugula should be harvested before the frosts arrive (which turns the plant to inedible black mush).  Spinach can take a touch of frost but is best harvested before the big cold snap.  When the plant is young, harvest individual leaves (one or two from each plant per week) to encourage regrowth and then harvest entire plants as the frost date approaches, or prepare to cover with old sheets or row cover.

Cabbage – Fall is also a great time of year for cabbages.  Like broccoli and cauliflower, cabbages thrive in cooler weather and face less pressure from pests in the fall months.  Direct sow cabbage seed in Mid August.

Lettuce – There are definitely some varieties of lettuce that will do better than others in the fall.  Our favorite is Rouge d’Hiver, a red romaine with great color and mild taste that can often last into December.  We also recommend Oakleaf Lettuce, a leaf lettuce that forms spicy rosettes with a shape similar to oak leaves, and Marvel of Four Seasons, a head lettuce with ruby red leaves that give way to green at the base.  Sow lettuce seeds in late August and be sure to keep evenly watered throughout the growing season for the sweetest flavor.

Cauliflower – Snowball Cauliflower does best in the fall and it will also do well in limited space.  Sow the seeds in August or early September for bright white, medium sized heads in late fall.

Radishes – Radishes make a great addition to fall salads and stir fries.  Any of our five varieties will thrive in the fall garden and in fact can be planted into October since they mature in less than a month.  Be sure to harvest your radishes before the soil freezes.

Carrots – Any of our three carrot varieties will grow well in the fall garden but we recommend Chantenay, which is known as a good storage carrot.  Sow the seeds in  early August (did you know you could have been sowing carrot seeds all summer long?) to get a harvest before the fall freeze hits. Covering with row cover will help protect from frosts and keep the carrots strong.

Beets or Turnips – These are classic fall crops that can be harvested and stored through the winter.   Sow the seeds in August in order to harvest before the ground freezes.  You can also cook up the greens for a tasting autumn side dish.

Green Onions – If you’re looking for a little flavor, green onions can be sown through mid-September.  The bulbs won’t have time to develop so just snip the greens for use in salads, stir fries, or whatever else you like.

Tags: fall, gardening, root crops, season extension

Tips on avoiding late and early tomato blight from LIFE farmer Jeff Evard.

The warm weather is likely bringing your tomatoes to fruit now. The plants are working hard and anything less than ideal conditions can weaken them.  A lot of the plant’s energy is being diverted away from leaf, root, and stem development and being put into the whole point, the fruit. When plants are stressed from the environment,  insects, or lack of nutrition, disease really begins to set in. Since your tomatoes are putting most of what they can mine from the soil into the fruit, this is an especially important time to re-fertilize your plants to keep them actively growing and healthy.

Early Blight conditions are definitely with us in the Midwest and Late Blight has just been identified here in Indiana. Take action to head off these diseases by keeping your plants’ soil full of what it needs to naturally fight the infection. These two diseases of tomatoes have been common the last few years and steps taken now  will help ensure a plentiful harvest through September.

1. Fertilize with a well balanced organic fertilizer at the roots such as Fish Emulsion to keep your plants healthy.  (Nature’s Crossroads is working to identify a locally sourced product and will hopefully offer one through the webstore soon.)
   
2. Consider pruning your plants to allow for better air flow and better balance the fruit-to-root ratio.
   
3. If your tomato leaves are dying from the bottom up, you may want to consider adding Epsom salts to the fertilizer mix, which will help size up the fruit quickly before all is lost.  (Epsom salts are readily available at drugstores and many grocery stores.)
4. As a last resort, copper based fungicides applied at 7-10 day intervals, combined with a feeding, will help keep the diseases from progressing.
5. If you see signs of late blight on your tomato plants, consider contacting your local Extension agent for confirmation and to help track the spread of the disease in your area.

Amy Thompson, our Purdue extension agent here in Monroe County, provided a link to a helpful article about late tomato blight that is geared towards organic farms – http://www.extension.org/article/18361

For those who learn best by video, there is also an archived webinar from earlier in July that includes links to various blogs and articles focusing on late blight in the Midwest – http://www.extension.org/article/28346

Guest post by Jami Scholl, My Edible Eden LLC

July seems an odd time to begin keeping a garden journal. Just as tomatoes are beginning to ripen on the vine, a few pickings of green beans have already been eaten for dinner, and the lettuces, peas and spinach seem a distant memory; we tend to think only about this harvest, rather than keeping records for next year. How boring and tedious to keep records!

How boring is it to peer into the cabbages (or other vegetable or fruit) to see evidence of some creature’s very full belly. The bane of my garden experiences this year is that of the cabbage moth and their progeny: holes are found in the cabbages, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. Since my yard gets little sun, these are some vegetables I can grow successfully… that is, as successfully as I can control the defoliating insect pests. What to do? I could easily go back to any of my reference books, but I think, what steps did I take when I had this problem in the past?

I am a lazy gardener. And I hate shopping. I garden not just to provide healthy nutrient dense foods for my family, but when I grow my own food all I have to do is step outside my door to find what will be for dinner. An undying wish I have is that anything I need will simply appear just as soon as I realize I need it. I wave my hand and Voila! It appears before me! (And as unrealistic as this seems, I am still wishing to find a new pair of Merrell hiking boots size 8 ½ at the foot of my bed each morning when I wake.) As for this wish for the cabbage moths to stop eating holes in all my cruciferous vegetables, what would I wish for? What product do I want to have sitting on the counter next to my backdoor, with step-by-step instructions for use? Hmmm, what did I do last year? I remember I grew red cabbages and broccoli raab. Green worms are easy to see on red cabbages, and the broccoli raab did not have insect pests. What about the year before? I didn’t grow any cruciferous vegetables for the previous three years.

It is at this moment that I think about pulling out my reference garden books, and then my previous years of journals. Although my memory does not serve up the details of information I need to immediately begin taking steps out my door to dust or spray, it does remember that about five years ago I had a similar problem when I lived in a different location. I look for this approximate journal year, taking 2005 off the book shelf, where I notice an entry about cabbage worms, or rather, holes in the cabbages. The steps I took in order to save the harvest in subsequent entries throughout the year are in subsequent journal entries. I see what worked well, what worked a little bit, and what did not work at all. I read the concerns I had and a “note to self” for future years. (“Note to self – try growing red cabbage for its red color and the tightness of the leaves. Make sure the soil is amended better.”)

Over the years I have tried a few different types of garden journals, but always came back to the ones I made myself out of a blank calendar, notebook paper with photos taped to it and graph paper mapping out what I planted where. As I learned more about gardening I began crop rotations, created my own compost and compost teas, and amended the soil with leaves, manures, rock powders, and other natural materials. This worked fine most of the time, but as I carried paper, books, pens and pencils outside or used at the kitchen table (a.k.a. potting bench) things didn’t always go so smoothly. Pencil smudged on plastic tags or faded over time in some notebooks. Other times it was ink that smeared.  I learned that journaling is only as good as the materials, just as proper plant selection is just as important as proper care of the plant. I am a firm believer that a garden journal must be functional in order to be a vessel for personal knowledge readily available for later use.  This is why I created my own, titling it A Gardener’s Calendar & Journal.

What type of journal is best for you? This depends upon your own personal way of working and thinking.  You will find that even a hodge-podge random lot of entries over the years will be beneficial to carry the memory back, or at least not leave you feeling a novice in the backyard. Beware of the post-it note syndrome! These little things are quite handy, but will quickly lose their stickiness with the tiniest of dirt and will fall to the floor unnoticed. I have been known to sweep up little post-it notes from the corner of the kitchen, find them stuck to my broom, pick it off, read it, then joyfully skip to my journal to tape it in. And if I do not tape it in immediately, it is likely that the same post-it note may be swept up again from a different corner of my house after being brushed off a countertop, this time not sticking to anything, begging to be read…to be saved knowledge!  On a more serious note, basic data will change from year to year such as temperature or rainfall amounts. After many years of record keeping you will be able to look back to see trends and fluctuations. This kind of information can be as standard as first and last frost dates or more specialized, such as tomato blight. Through keeping accurate records you may be able to anticipate conditions that spread fungus, or a myriad of other things, such as the timing of lifecycles of specific insects.

Perhaps you are one who moves from place to place, questioning whether journaling will still be beneficial to you. It will. You will be able to refer back to different climates or soil types then adjust this knowledge for where you are now living. All knowledge is useful as it will help you adjust to climactic changes. Whether small changes of your own creation as you begin to learn and play around with micro-climates, or larger ones of global proportion. This is something that can be experimented with on a patio or yard. Sometimes it is the smaller spaces which are easiest to work with, experiencing first-hand how incremental changes in the environment can have major impacts on the health and vigour of your plants, and the quality, quantity and duration of harvest. All of this information can be written down, built upon as a story, calculated as data tables or utilized in whatever manner suits your own needs… July is the perfect time to begin your garden journal!

You can find more information about My Edible Eden’s A Gardener’s Calendar and Journal on the website www.MyEdibleEden.net

Jami Scholl is an edible landscaping and  garden designer from My Edible Eden, LLC.  She offers design consultations, educational programs, permaculture workshops, and a variety of garden planning tools such as her excellent gardener’s calendar and journal.

Tags: garden, Jami Scholl, journal

Happy Independence Day!  In our neck of the woods, it’s a holiday often celebrated with fireworks, parades, and patriotic bunting along with a barbecue (perhaps featuring some fresh green beans from the garden and maybe a couple of tomatoes if we really got a head start on our gardens this spring).  It’s also a time to celebrate the birth of our nation many years ago when we declared independence from the British and formed the United States of America.

There are plenty of ways to be patriotic but our favorite is to show your support by gardening!  Victory Gardens were originally created during World War II when our government urged citizens to increase their home food production in order to free up resources for our troops fighting overseas.  There was a fair amount of rationing during the war and home vegetable production helped everyone stay healthy and enjoy full bellies. Some historians estimate that as many as 5 million gardens were planted, producing an estimated $1.2 billion in food during the war.  Perhaps the most famous Victory Garden was planted by Eleanor Roosevelt on the grounds of the White House.

Today the Victory Garden movement has resurfaced as a way to show our energy independence and our local food security by ensuring that we are producing plenty of healthy, fresh food in our own communities.  There are groups around the country working to encourage the creation of new gardens in back yards, front yards, empty lots, and even on rooftops (not to mention bringing gardening back to the White House).  Community gardens are springing up to give people without a good garden spot the opportunity to garden on a rented plot in the company of other gardeners.  Many groups encourage gardeners to plant a little extra (such as the widely known Plant a Row program) to give to those who are most in need of food support during tough economic times.  Other programs are focused on building the next generation of farmers who earn their living selling fresh food to their neighbors and fellow citizens while using sustainable growing practices.

From the Victory Garden Initiative in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:  “The Victory Garden Initiative promotes the use of our own backyards (and front yards and rooftops and patios) for the production of food. We are gardeners supporting other gardeners in their own paths towards a self-sufficient, sustainable, and healthy food supply. Through mentoring, modeling and outreach we aim to make Victory Gardening a way of life for everyone. Gardening is the new protest, the passive resistance of our time. Lay down, next to me, in front of this bulldozer.  This is a grassroots movement.  Move grass.  Grow food.”

We think it’s great that there are groups all over the country providing support and education.  Nothing in your area?  Consider starting the movement by planting (or expanding) your Victory Garden to celebrate Independence Day and show your commitment to local food independence!

Tags: garden, Independence Day, Victory Garden

Guest post by Luna Dirt Dani.

Welcome to the garden revolution where herbicides are replaced by herbalists! Wait, don’t kill that plant!   I’m going to make medicine out of it!

It’s true; almost all the “weeds” that grow in the garden are useful food and medicine plants.  Let’s first talk about that interesting word “weed.”  Simply put, a weed is just a plant that is out of its zone of human desire.  If we don’t want it there, it’s a weed. If we do, it’s an herb.  So there are lots of weeds that become herbs once we pick them out of the garden where they may be competing with the veggies.

How Did They Get There!

Gardeners spend a whole lot of time dealing with weeds.  We use cardboard, plastic, straw, and more to act as a light barrier to keep weeds from growing.  There are millions of seeds in the soil just waiting to be watered by the rain, heated by the sun, and provoked by the proper timing to sprout on out for its go to making more copies of itself.  No matter how hard we try the weeds are going to win most of the time.  They are way smarter, so why don’t we take advantage of these genius plants and eat them?

Many of the weeds that come up in the garden are non-native, meaning they evolved in a different area of the world.  So how are they in your garden?  Many of these plants were intentionally brought over by Europeans during colonization because they were prized medicinal and food plants.  A great example of this is Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale.  This is a wonderful food and medicine and the entire plant can be used and prepared many different ways.

They all look so Green

So how do you identify all these lil’ ones?  It is easy once you get to know your garden.  Every year the same weeds usually come up.  Over time things may change and then you’ll get to know a new set of plants.  Try to find a friend who will walk you through the garden and show you the differences between the plants.  You can use books, but the best way is to have someone who knows the plants just show you.  There are some poisonous plants out there, and it’s important to know how to identify these.  Go to your local library, gardeners club, or ask your neighbors.

Preparations

When you are gathering these plants you want to consider which parts are edible.  Generally: You have roots, leaves and stems in the spring.  Leaves, stems, flowers in the summer.  Leaves, stems, flowers, roots, and seeds in the fall.  Depending on the plant and the season you may use the entire above and below ground parts or just the seeds.

There are a few basic methods of using plants for medicine.

• Infusions: You can use the fresh or dried plant for infusions.  To make a cold infusion just place the plant in cold water and let sit for a few minutes before serving.  To make a warm infusion pour boiling water over the chopped plant.  Let it steep for 10 minutes, strain and serve.
• Oils: You can also use fresh or dried plants for oils.  Just chop up the plant and pour olive oil over the top.  Be sure to fully submerge the plants.  If you are doing a fresh oil, you want to put a cloth over the top.  Some plants may mold at the top so watch it and if they start to mold, scoop it off and strain the oil immediately.  For dried plant oils you can put a lid on it.  Let the oil sit for a few weeks in darkness and then strain with a cloth bag.  You can use these oils externally as they are or mixed with beeswax and made into lip balm or salve.

The Green Gems of the Weed World

There are lots of great weeds.  They will come up at different times of the season so don’t worry, you can pace yourself. Here are some of em’….

• Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) – Food: Use the greens like spinach fresh or cooked.  I love lambsquarter pesto!  You can also harvest the seeds in the fall.  You will need to learn how to winnow which is a simple way to blow the chaff from the seed.  Then you can grind the seeds into flour.
• All heal (Prunella vulgaris) – Food: Eat the leaves and flowers in salads.    Medicine: Infusion or oil.  Used externally for healing wounds.  Also contains antioxidants.
• Yarrow (Achillea millifolium) – Medicine: Use the leaves and flowers to make infusion or oil.  Externally to stop bleeding and sterlize wound.  Internally as an anti-microbial.
• Sorrel (Oxalis spp.) – Food: all above ground parts.  Its sour tasting and many children love it.  Add it to salads
• White clover (Tifolium repens) – Food: leaves and flowers contain some protein and have a bean like flavor.  Mix in salad or breads.
• Red clover (Trifolium pretense) – Food: use like white clover.  This one is a bit sweeter though.
• Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) – Food: Tender leaves in early spring are the best.  The sting will stop after being cooked.  Lightly cook until bright green and eat like spinach.  Medicine: Infusion of leaves.  The seeds and roots are also used for urinary and prostate conditions.  Utility: The stalks harvested in autumn can be woven into cordage or cloth.  Nettle cloth was more commonly used before flax (linen) came on the   scene.
• Chickweed (Stellaria media) – Food: Eat the leaves, stems and flowers in early spring.  They are sweet and full of water, yummy in salad.  Medicine: Juice or infuse for a spring cleanse.
• Plantain (Plantago spp.) – Food: Eat leaves sparingly (they are a little tough).  Harvest the seeds in the fall for a crunchy trail snack.  Medicine: Leaf oil or infusion for healing wounds.  Chew and spit onto a bee sting to relieve the sting.
• Onion Grass (Romulea rosea) – Food: Eat bulbs and leaves raw or cooked like onions
• Cleavers (Gallium spp.) – Medicine: Juice or infuse above-ground parts for a spring cleansing drink
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) – Food: Flowers can be eaten raw or cooked.  I have dipped the flower heads in egg and breading and cooked it in oil.  Not so cleansing, but yummy.  Leaves cooked or raw made into soups, salads, and dips.  Roots when roasted can be infused and made into a lovely aromatic drink.  Roots can also be cooked into soups with other veggies.  Medicine:  Infused leaves are highly nutritious, bitter(digestive aid) and also a diuretic (usefull during a Urinary tract infection).  Roots are commonly used as a liver tonic for those with liver conditions.
• Mustard Greens (Brassica spp.) – Food: Greens can be eaten raw or cooked and roots made into a horseradish like sauce.
• Burdock (Arctium spp.) – Food: Roots are sometimes called Gobo and can be eaten cooked in soups, or grated and made into patties.  The stalks are simiar to Cardoone, and can be cooked and seasoned.  Medicine: Infused roots used as a liver tonic

Yikes That was Kinda Gross

So maybe you will try some of these things and spit them out.  Well that’s okay!  Keep trying things out and give them a second chance.  Sometimes the plants taste different depending on growing conditions, weather, and time of the season.  Anyway, have fun and spice it up a little.

Luna Dirt Dani is an avid gardener and environmental activist who is excited to come through Bloomington from time to time in her travels.

Guest post by master gardener and organic grower Michael Simmons.

You’ve improved your soil, planted correctly, and now await the fruits of your labors.  Here are a few simple steps to take to make the harvest live up to your expectations.

The strongest defense your crop plants have against competition from weeds, attacks by pathogens, and predation by insect pests is their own good health and vigor.  By planting on a well-drained site with appropriate sun exposure, by amending your soil to address deficiencies, and by selecting cultivars resistant to diseases present in your area, you’ve already given your plants a good foundation for success.  With a little more work you can make you initial investment of time, money, and effort pay off with a bountiful harvest.

First, do no harm.

With the best of intentions, gardeners sometimes do more harm than good.  While it’s true that being in the garden often will help you spot problems before they get out of hand, there are some times when it’s best to stay away.  If your garden has a high clay and silt content, you can destroy the wonderful tilth you’ve achieved through hard work and a lot of organic matter with a single footstep on saturated soil.  It’s always best to avoid walking on planting beds or at least to spread the weight by standing on boards, but when the ground is soaked, it’s best to restrict your presence in the garden to mulched pathways.  Most compaction happens with the first footstep, and we all know how hard on roots compacted soil can be.

It’s also a good idea to avoid handling plants when they’re wet.  The thin film of water on plant leaves and on our hands provides a perfect vector for the transmission of pathogens from one plant to another.  Even in dry conditions, we should wash our hands after handling diseased plants in order to avoid spreading diseases.  We should also take precautions with our tools.  It’s easy to transfer problems from one part of the garden to another by the failure to clean our tools and shoes of soil that can contain pathogens or weed seeds.  So if you’re working in an area that has had problems with pernicious weeds or soil-borne pathogens, be sure to clean your shoes and tools before moving to an area in the garden free of those problems.

When pruning diseased or damaged plant parts, it’s a good idea to disinfect pruning tools with alcohol before moving on to the next plant in order to avoid inoculating healthy plants with pathogens.  Unlike bleach solutions, alcohol won’t cause tools to rust.  Individually-packaged alcohol swabs are convenient to carry in a pocket so they’re there when you need them.

When rainfall fails to provide adequate irrigation for our plants, they will wilt and experience stress that will reduce their vigor and compromise their productivity.  Drought stress can also make plants more susceptible to attacks by pathogens and insect pests.  Providing adequate water through artificial irrigation will get your plants through those dry spells, but improper watering can do more harm than good.  Always water plants in the root zone.  This assures that the water goes to the crop plant’s roots and not to help dormant weed seeds germinate.  It also assures that water will stay off the foliage where it can provide a moist environment for harmful fungi.  Watering between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. will give the water time to soak into the soil with minimal loss to evaporation.  Watering slowly, deeply, and infrequently will encourage deep rooting and avoid water loss and soil erosion due to run-off.  Overhead sprinklers not only waste water through evaporation, they also provide water to weeds in areas where crops are not growing and wet the foliage of crop plants, which can lead to disease problems.  Overwatering is just as harmful as not watering enough, causing excessive leaching of nutrients and drowning plant roots.  Frequent shallow irrigations encourages plants to develop shallow root systems, which makes them more susceptible to drought stress in periods of inadequate rainfall or if you forget to irrigate.

Nurture the soil.

As Wendell Berry has taught us, soil is the most important crop we produce.  If we take care of the soil, the soil will help our plants take care of themselves.  Organic mulches do more than suppress weeds in the garden.  They protect the soil from water and wind erosion, they prevent the formation of impermeable crusts at the soil surface, they cut down water loss through evaporation, they moderate soil temperatures, they provide nutrients as they decompose, and they protect earthworms and soil microorganisms.

Encouraging the microbial life in the soil is essential to a successful garden that will not only produce a good harvest but will also leave the soil healthier every season.  Side dressing with compost during the growing season is just as important as incorporating compost into the soil when planting.  Compost not only provides valuable nutrients, improves tilth, increases water-holding capacity, and buffers pH, but also inoculates the soil with beneficial microorganisms that facilitate nutrient cycling and help protect plants from pathogens and predatory microorganisms.

Most garden plants perform best in a soil dominated by bacteria rather than by fungi.  An easy way to encourage bacterial dominance is to drench the soil with actively aerated compost tea engineered to encourage bacterial growth.  Five cups of compost placed in an old nylon stocking and immersed in a five-gallon bucket of dechlorinated water to which is added two tablespoons of fruit juice or syrup will, when aerated with an aquarium pump and an air stone for 36 hours provide five gallons of bacterially dominated compost tea.  You can apply the tea with a watering can at full strength or diluted with dechlorinated water.  The results are readily apparent in the improved health and vigor of your plants.  The increase in the number of earthworms in the garden also will show that the soil food web is healthy and functioning properly.

Be vigilant.

There is a reason that the success of the garden decreases as its distance from the kitchen door increases.  Looking often at the garden is not only a pleasure, it is the first line of defense against things going badly wrong.  There are few things so disheartening as to return from a vacation to find the garden hidden by weeds, or to find tomato plants defoliated by hornworms, or to find that rabbits found a way through the fence with predictable consequences.  Regular inspections of the garden and its plants will enable you to catch problems and address them before they get out of hand.  I find looking carefully at my plants as often as I can one of the least onerous of gardening chores.  In fact, there are few things as relaxing as looking at beautiful plants and knowing that you’ve helped to make them healthy.

Michael Simmons is an experienced master gardener and co-teacher of the Grow Organic Educator Series taught through People’s University in Bloomington.  This training program teaches individuals how to garden organically and encourages them to share their knowledge with others, which has led to the creation of the Bloomington Organic Gardening Association.

Tags: gardening, observing, pruning, watering

Tags: mulch, soil, straw

One of our biggest goals here at Nature’s Crossroads is encouraging people to garden, especially children.  We love seeing people grow food for themselves and for others in their community.  With that in mind, we created a garden sponsorship program where we donate seeds to charitable gardening projects like school gardens, community gardens, food pantry gardens – really, any garden that is helping build community and teach people how to feed themselves.  We’re especially excited about gardens that are committed to organic growing methods.

So far we have donated over $2,000 in seeds to more than 30 garden projects.  Most are based in the Midwest but simply by setting up a webpage we have connected with groups across the nation that are doing great gardening work.  We also sent seeds to farmers in Haiti as part of a project sponsored by the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture.  It’s a little sobering to realize that there are many places in the world where people are gardening or farming just to be able to feed their families.  Most of us are in the more luxurious position of gardening for fun or as a way to help out our budgets a little.

Whatever the reason you garden, we though you might be interested in hearing about some of the very cool garden projects happening around the Midwest (and beyond)!  They are presented in alphabetical order.

15000 Farmers (Louisville, KY)

Louisville is a hub of urban farming activity and 15,000 Farmers is a nonprofit that is working to create, empower, and inspire 15,000 new, organic, neighborhood backyard/front yard farmers in Louisville, KY to feed their families and themselves and to give away! Their plan is to use simple and easy instructions, checklists, materials and ongoing support to help citizens start Easy Farms in their yards, on decks or in community gardens.  They have already created a wonderful community of urban gardeners/farmers to support each other.  Visit them online at http://15thousandfarmers.com/.

Centro Hispano (Madison, WI)

Centro Hispano is a community center serving Latino youth in the Madison, Wisconsin area.  They provide a variety of programs and services for youth including a large garden where the youth raise food to distribute through the center’s food pantry.  It’s a great way for kids to get involved and help grow food for their community.  Visit the center online at http://micentro.org/.

City Sprouts (Cambridge, MA)

CitySprouts works with 12 schools in the Cambridge, Massachuttsetts area to help them create and use learning gardens as a direct extension of their classroom teaching.    In partnership with the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS), they have developed garden-based lessons with practical learning applications. These lessons are explicitly tied to the curriculum that Cambridge public school teachers are mandated to use.  CitySprouts also connects with students and their families through after school garden drop-in programs, school cafeteria tastings of fresh produce, and summer garden internships for older students.  Learn more at their website, http://www.citysprouts.org/.

Cob Connection (Chicago, IL)

Cob Connection is a non-profit group supporting urban youth with job training in natural building techniques (including cob) and urban agriculture.  They are turning vacant lots into thriving community farms and gardens while empowering local youth to grow food for the local food pantry. Since 2007, they have trained over 100 young adults and transformed over 17 vacant lots into food production sites.  Learn more at http://cobconnection.org

Community CROPS (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Community CROPS (Combining Resources, Opportunities, and People for Sustainability) helps people work together to grow healthy food and live sustainably.  Community  CROPS now has sixteen community garden sites, a training farm, a successful Community Supported Agriculture program, its own Community CROPS Farmers’ Market, and a regular stand at the Old Cheney Road Farmers’ Market.  They offer lots of support for local gardeners including workshops, multi-lingual gardening guides, and financial assistance for garden plots.  Read more at http://www.communitycrops.org/.

Community Heights (Indianapolis, IN)

The Community Heights Neighborhood Organization on the east side of Indianapolis sponsors a community garden located directly behind a local elementary school.  Part of the garden is divided into 48 plots that individuals can rent and the remainder is planted by the neighborhood association through the Plant a Row program (the produce is donated to local food banks). Last year, Community Heights grew over 375 pumpkins and were able to supply each student from IPS School #88 a pumpkin for Halloween.  To learn more, please visit http://www.community-heights.org/.

Don Moyers Boys/Girls Club (Champaign, IL)

A new garden is being installed on an empty lot in Champaign, Illinois just down the street from the Don Moyers Boys and Girls Club.  Youth from the JUMP program (Juvenile Upward Mobility Program)  and three other groups will plant the garden, harvest the produce, learn how to cook it and sell some of it at the Historic North First Street Farmer’s Market this summer.  They will be assisted by local master gardeners who will help develop educational programs, teach gardening, and teach the youth how to market and sell their harvest.  Read more about the First Street Prosperity Garden at the C-U Fit blog http://cufitfamilies.blogspot.com/.

Dream of Wild Health (Hugo, MN)

Dream of Wild Health is a traditional garden project in the upper Midwest. Its mission is to become the seed saver of indigenous Native American plants in the region.  They grow out indigenous seeds—primarily corn, beans, and squash–that were donated by tribes from around the region, some of which are hundreds of years old. They also operate a market garden with a wide variety of vegetables that are sold at a farmers market in the Twin Cities at a location close to the Native community. Primarily, they work to recover indigenous cultural wisdom, and within that is an effort to save indigenous varieties of seeds and perennial plants, as there is a close connection between culture and agriculture.  Learn more about their work at http://www.petawakantipi.org/Dream%20of%20Wild%20Health.htm

Elkhart Local Food Alliance (Elkhart, IN)

The Elkhart Local Food Alliance is part of Elkhart County Works Together, an organization working to help the citizens of Elkhart County support each other to revitalize their community.  ELFA is focused on food security and is committed to creating educational programs and neighborhood gardening spaces which will strengthen the health, economy, environment and connections of our community.   At the root of their work is a commitment to partnering with existing organizations and neighbors who have experience in working with food systems and who carry a similar vision for strong, healthy neighborhoods.  They have helped coordinate the creation of several new community gardens while also encouraging gardening in backyards and frontyards.  You can read more at http://ecwt.org/programs/elfa/

Exodus House (Anderson, IN)

Exodus House is a not-for-profit halfway house opening in Anderson, IN.  Their commitment is to create a home where residents can come and find self-worth and the resources to live out the fullness of their worth.  The house seeks to create an environment of equality and mutual respect, thus encouraging individual as well as communal responsibility.  They are also working to make the house food sustainable with the addition of a garden and a few chickens.  Read more at their website: http://theexodushouse.com/

Feed the Fort (Fort Wayne, IN)

As the interest in locally produced food has grown, Fort Wayne has responded by creating several community gardens, including  large projects that seek to serve the needs of the growing population of resettled Burmese residents.  They have also partnered with the Community Harvest Food Bank to help community gardeners plant a little extra for their neighbors who might not be as fortunate.  There is an overview of the various gardens available here: http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/food-for-the-fort:-community-garden-project-continues-to-grow.html

Felege Hiywot Center (Indianapolis, IN)

The Felege Hiywot Center teaches urban youth to be good citizens by teaching them how to garden. The Center has maintained a large garden since 2007 and has run a summer gardening summer camp since 2008 to supplement its regular after school programming. This year the Center has expanded its garden and finished construction of a small community building. Through gardening, the kids learn an awareness of nature, a commitment to environmental preservation, an ability to make nutritious food choices, and the opportunity to be a helpful team player. They also enjoyed eating fresh fruits and vegetables, including crops indigenous to countries outside of North America. Learn more at their website: http://fhcenter.org/

Garden Angels (Fort Wayne, IN)

Master gardener Ephraim Smiley (known to many as the Jolly Green Giant) has been helping with community gardens for many years.  For the past few, he has concentrated on mobilizing his “garden angels,” 50 elementary school children from Maplewood School who manage one of the largest community gardens in the Midwest.  They use organic methods and get plenty of exercise managing a 2 acre plot utilizing intensive methods.  Over 75% of their crops are donated to senior citizens.  They have been supported by partnerships with Fort Wayne African-American Cancer Alliance and HealthVisions Fort Wayne, who are always looking for ways to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables.   To learn more, visit http://www.agreenerindiana.com/group/urbanfarminggardening.

Growing Hope (Ypsilanti, MI)

Growing Hope is a small non-profit dedicated to helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening and healthy food access.  They have helped with over 40 community and school gardens and have a variety of other outreach activities, including last year’s 4Square raised bed installations, where they provided 80 low- and no-income households each with three 16 square foot raised beds and all the soil, compost, and seedlings needed to fill them. For more information on their programs, please see our website at www.growinghope.net.

Harvest Hill Garden (Liberty, MO)

Harvest Hill is a one acre community garden located in Liberty, Missouri that started through a partnership between William Jewell College and local church members of Second Baptist. The purpose of Harvest Hill is to provide a place for Liberty community members to garden, seeking especially to help those who might not be able to have a garden on their own.  The opportunity to garden helps people stretch their food dollar and improve their nutritional intake. Community gardens also improve the overall quality of life in neighborhoods by encouraging self-sufficiency and a sense of community among participants.  For more information, visit http://harvesthill.ning.com/.

High School for Public Service (Brooklyn, New York)

The High School for Public Service and bk farmyards are embarking on an innovative new farming venture to turn the school’s 1 acre lawn into a thriving, productive and educational farm. The Farm will provide fresh affordable food for the community, while providing educational and employment opportunities for the students. The Farm will be integrated into the school curriculum,
serving as an outdoor classroom for hands-on learning. Student farmers will be hired during the summer to work on the farm, learning about sustainable agriculture and community leadership. Produce from the farm will be sold at a low cost to the school community through a Community Supported Agriculture program.  For more information, visit http://bkfarmyards.com/.

Hinkle Garton Farm (Bloomington, IN)

The Hinkle Garton Farmstead is a familiar landmark for many in Bloomington that reminds community members of when much more of the city was taken up by farmland.  The farmhouse, built in 1892, is on the historic register and many volunteers have been working to re-establish the grounds in their historic context.  There is also a large community garden in place growing vegetables for the local food bank.  To learn more, visit http://www.bloomingtonrestorations.org/hg_index.html.

Hoosier Hills Food Bank Garden (Bloomington, IN)

The HHFB Garden Program was born out of a continuing effort to increase the amount and nutritional quality of food provided to area food pantries and soup kitchens.  Growing its own allows the food bank to bring in varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables rarely donated. A Monroe county farm, Strangers Hill Organics, has donated to the food bank the long-term use of a half-acre of land along with tillage and access to water for irrigation. In 2009, the garden’s first year, over 211 volunteers planted, maintained, and harvested 5,600 pounds of organic vegetables!  The food bank also operates a gleaning program harvesting and collecting excess fruits and vegetables from farms throughout south-central Indiana.  For more information, visit http://www.hhfoodbank.org/glean.htm.

Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture (Kansas City, KS)

The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture is a non-profit organization with the mission to promote the production and consumption of fresh, local produce by growing urban farmers who are an active part of healthy neighborhoods in greater   Kansas City.  They provide education and technical assistance to people interested in urban farming, promote research and policy development aimed at making urban farming an integral part of a lively and viable cityscape, and work with communities to embrace and support urban farms. The Center also operates the Kansas City Community Farm, a working organic vegetable farm that serves as a demonstration project for urban agriculture in Kansas City.  Read more at http://www.kccua.org/index.htm.

Little Flower Farms (Indianapolis, IN)

Little Flower Farms is a group of urban homesteaders forming a cooperative to grow and share as much produce as they can with each other and with local folks who typically can’t afford fresh, local veggies.  They have a blog at http://littleflowerfarms.blogspot.com/.

Louisville Grows (Louisville, KY)

Louisville Grows is a small non-profit working to promote sustainable living in their community.  One of their big focuses is urban agriculture and they are working on two model gardens: one at an elementary and one at the University of Louisville.  They see urban agriculture and education to be indivisible, so they have targeted institutions of learning as great places for demonstration gardens.  They also offer workshops on garden design, planting, harvesting, distribution, food policy and security, etc.  Learn more at http://www.louisvillegrows.org/.

Lutheran Social Services of New England (Worcester, MA)

Lutheran Social Services of New England (LSS) provides resettlement and job placement services to refugees while developing various programs which help them integrate their new communities. Over the past couple of years they have built an agricultural project aimed at equipping our refugee clients with the tools they need to become farmers in the United States. Many stem from
agricultural backgrounds but do not have the knowledge or resources needed to navigate the particularities of the farming industry in the United States.  The Lutheran Agricultural program offers refugees the opportunity to begin farming on small community garden plots in the city, transition to larger market garden plots and eventually access tracts of farm land. Last year some of their clients began successfully marketing their produce and have asked for more land to begin commercial ventures. In response to their
request the agency is leasing 4 acres of farmland nearby and will be extending the program even further in hopes of training up a new generation of farmers in Massachusetts.  Read more about LSS here: http://www.lssne.org/ (they are still developing a website about the farming program).

Maple City Market  and Boys and Girls Club of Goshen (Goshen, IN)

Maple City Market, a natural foods co-op, is sponsoring a gardening project this year at the local Boys and Girls Club. They will be teaching  kids of all ages from the club how to plant, tend, and harvest an organic garden. The produce will be sent home with the kids, of which most live nearby in the low-income neighborhood, and the extra food will be delivered to families in need from the community. Learn more about Maple City Market at http://www.maplecitymarket.com/.

My Place to Be (Newark, OH)

My Place to Be is a nonprofit organization that works with children on the Autism Spectrum by creating a safe place for children to express themselves and learn in a positive way.  All children are treated with dignity and respect and are allowed to learn self awareness through sensory integration, nature, music, and art. There are several gardens at the site including an herb garden, a vegetable garden, and a sunflower area.  They also help coordinate the Children’s Garden in their local community garden.  Learn more at http://www.myplace2b.org/.

North Point Home School (Fishers, IN)

Northpoint Homeschool Classes is a home school coop for kindergarten through twelfth graders.  Two of the main organizers are working to turn their front yard into an edible estate and teaching garden. Their goal is to create community in their front yard, while educating themselves, their children, and their students.  They are also encouraging all their students and participating families to create gardens at home.  Learn more about their program at: http://www.northpointclasses.com/.

Small Ville Learning Farm (Detroit, MI)

Small Ville Learning Farm is a nonprofit group just getting started that is promoting sustainable agriculture in Detroit.  They are currently involved with two school gardens, two church gardens, two community gardens, two city farms and one Moorish Science Temple of America garden.  No website available yet.

SPROUTS (Bloomington, IN)

The SPROUTS (“Students Producing Organics Under the Sun”) Garden was officially founded on the Indiana University Campus in 2005.   Students and community members operate an organic garden at 8th and Fess with the following goals in mind: educating people about organic food production, promoting a more sustainable lifestyle to people, increasing the local food supply – thereby reducing Bloomington’s carbon footprint, and proactively and substantively addressing the correlation between income level and the availability of nutritious foods.  They also address these goals by hosting Garden Days throughout the week and during every growing season to enable people to learn about sustainable practices like composting, rainwater catchment, and social equity. In the process SPROUTS raises food for later distribution to local food relief agencies like Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard and the Community Kitchen and volunteers also take some home with them – reducing their dependence on retail shopping centers that acquire their produce from distant locales.  Visit the SPROUTS Facebook page for more information.

Sycamore Services and Hendricks County Master Gardeners (Danville, IN)

Sycamore Services, Inc. makes a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities and others experiencing daily challenges by providing individualized training and services to increase independence and enhance their quality of life.  For the last two years they have partnered with the local Master Gardeners group on a project is titled “Growing Hope.”  This project created gardens at their Danville site, including raised beds that are accessible to physically disabled gardeners.  This year they will again plant the raised beds but will also add traditional vegetable gardening beds.  The plan is for these items to be taken to local Farmers’ Markets for sale so the clients will gain the whole experience – growing, harvesting, marketing, meeting customers, and handling money (which will be used for more seeds and plants for 2011).  Learn more about Sycamore Services at http://www.sycamoreservices.com/.

The Talking Farm (Evanston, IL)

The Talking Farm’s mission is to operate a sustainable urban agricultural enterprise that provides fresh and locally grown food, job training, and environmental education, and related research. They are helping create school gardens and community gardens while working toward their larger goal of a working farm of their own.  Read more at http://www.thetalkingfarm.org/.

Toledo GROWs (Toledo, OH)
Toledo GROWs is the community gardening outreach program of Toledo Botanical Garden. GROWs is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the continued growth and success of community-based gardens in the city of Toledo and throughout NW Ohio.  They organize one of the largest seed swaps in the Midwest every year and also support the development of sustainable garden projects that serve people of diverse ages and abilities. In 2008, GROWs served over sixty five community gardens. Throughout the seasons, Toledo GROWs works with community garden organizers to ensure that they have everything necessary to create a vibrant community garden.  Learn more at http://www.toledogarden.org/content/toledogrows/.

Unity Gardens (South Bend, IN)

Unity Gardens of Michiana is working to build a community with an abundance of healthy, locally grown produce.  They help individuals and groups start gardens that emphasize bringing diverse groups of people together and sharing the harvest.  There are many models available including allotment gardens with plots allocated to individuals or families, cooperative gardens with collective growing and harvesting, feed-the-hungry gardens which focus on growing for food pantries, and open concept gardens that  are designed to operate in a free and open manner, allowing people to stop by to help plant, weed, water, and/or harvest as they want and as they need. Learn more at http://www.unitygardensinc.org/.

Victory Garden Initiative (Milwaukee, WI)

The Victory Garden Initiative promotes the use of  backyards (and front yards and rooftops and patios) for the production of food. The group is comprised of gardeners supporting other gardeners in their own paths towards a self-sufficient, sustainable, and healthy food supply. Through mentoring, modeling and outreach they aim to make Victory Gardening a way of life for everyone. In addition to promoting gardening at home, they have also helped create community gardens, including the Bay View Hide House Garden, as well as several school gardens.  Learn more at: http://thevictorygardeninitiative.com/.

Tags: community, free seeds, garden, sponsorship, youth